Honorable
Piero Fassino
38th Mayor of Turin
In office
16 May 2011 – 20 June 2016
Preceded bySergio Chiamparino
Succeeded byChiara Appendino
Minister of Justice
In office
26 April 2000 – 11 June 2001
Prime MinisterGiuliano Amato
Preceded byOliviero Diliberto
Succeeded byRoberto Castelli
Minister of Foreign Trade
In office
21 October 1998 – 26 April 2000
Prime MinisterRomano Prodi
Preceded byAugusto Fantozzi
Succeeded byEnrico Letta
Personal details
Born (1949-10-07) 7 October 1949
Avigliana, Italy
Political partyPCI (1968–1991)
PDS (1991–1998)
DS (1998–2007)
PD (since 2007)
SpouseAnna Maria Serafini
Alma materUniversity of Turin

Piero Franco Rodolfo Fassino (born 7 October 1949) is an Italian politician with the Democratic Party. He was Mayor of Turin from 2011 until 2016 and is a former national secretary of the Democrats of the Left party.[1]

Early life and education

Fassino was born in Avigliana, Piedmont (province of Turin), in a traditional socialist family. His father Eugenio was a partisan, commander of the 41st Garibaldi Brigade, and his paternal grandfather Piero was beaten to death by the Italian Fascists in 1944 because he did not want to reveal his son's hideout, while his maternal grandfather Cesare Grisa was one of the founders of the Italian Socialist Party. He graduated in Political Sciences.

Political career

Early career

Fassino registered with the Youth Communist Federation of Turin in 1968, becoming their secretary three years later. In 1975, he was elected as a Member of the City Council of the Piedmont regional capital, a position he remained in for ten years. From 1985 to 1990 he was Provincial Councillor, also in Turin. He was also secretary of the provincial Italian Communist Party (PCI) federation of Turin from 1983 to 1987, when he was elected as a member of the National Secretary's Office of the party, first as the Secretary's Office Coordinator, then as Responsible of Organization, during the period where the party was transformed from the PCI into the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS).

From 1991 to 1996, Fassino was International Secretary of the new party; his first election to the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Italian parliament) was in 1994. Re-elected in 1996, he was appointed in 1998 as Minister for Foreign Commerce in the government headed by Massimo D'Alema. From 2000, he was Minister of Justice in the Giuliano Amato government.[1] Candidate as vice-premier of The Olive Tree coalition in a ticket with former Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli for the 2001 general elections in Italy won by the House of Freedoms rival coalition, he was still re-elected as a Member of Parliament.

Chairman of Democrats of the Left, 2001–2007

In 2001, during the National Party Congress of the Democrats of the Left, Fassino was elected as secretary (a position of leader in Italian political parties). He was then re-elected in February 2005, during the party congress.

In 2003, Fassino and other high-ranking party members – including Romano Prodi, Lamberto Dini and Walter Veltroni – were accused of taking millions of pounds in backhanders when state-run Telecom Italia bought a 29% stake in Telekom Serbia in 1997.[2] During his time in office, Fassino asserted that Il Giornale, a right-wing newspaper, published confidential wiretap transcripts shortly before the 2006 election to create the impression that he had exercised improper pressure in the attempted takeover of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro by insurer Unipol in 2005. In 2013, a court awarded 80,000 euros in damages to Fassino for the incident.[3]

Member of Parliament, 2006–2011

In addition to his role in parliament, Fassino was a member of Italian delegation to the Assembly of the Western European Union from 2006 until 2011, where he served as chairman of the Committee on Political Affairs and as rapporteur for the Western Balkans.[4]

From 2007 until 2010, Fassino served as the European Union's special envoy for Myanmar, appointed by the Union’s High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana.[5]

Mayor of Turin, 2011–2016

Fassino served as Mayor of Turin from 2011 until 2016. In the 2016 elections, he was defeated by Chiara Appendino, who overturned an 11-point gap after the first round to win 55 per cent of the vote.[6]

Member of Parliament, 2018–present

Fassino has also served as a member of the Italian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1994 until 1996; from 2006 until 2011; and since 2018.[7] As member of the Democratic Party, he is part of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group. In the Assembly, he serves on the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (since 2018); the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy (since 2018); and the Sub-Committee on the Middle East and the Arab World (since 2019). He also serves as the Assembly's co-rapporteur on Serbia (alongside Ian Liddell-Grainger)[8] and Libya.[9]

Recognition

Fassino received the America Award from the Italy-USA Foundation in 2010.

Other activities

Personal life

Fassino is married to Anna Maria Serafini, who was elected to the Italian Senate (the second chamber of the Italian parliament) in 2006. He considers himself Roman Catholic.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 Prodi Clears Final Hurdle as Deficit Pressures Mount 11 May 2006, Bloomberg L.P.. Accessed 15 April 2009. Archived 15 April 2009.
  2. ↑ Sophie Arie (September 1, 2003), Kickback claims hit Italian left The Guardian.
  3. ↑ Manuela D'Alessandro (March 7, 2013), Berlusconi sentenced in wiretap trial Reuters.
  4. ↑ House of the living dead European Voice, April 14, 2010.
  5. ↑ Toby Vogel (November 14, 2007), EU wants Asean to turn screw on Myanmar European Voice.
  6. ↑ Crispian Balmer and Gavin Jones (June 19, 2016), Blow for Italy's PM as 5-Star makes breakthrough in mayoral vote Reuters.
  7. ↑ Piero Fassino Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
  8. ↑ Monitoring co-rapporteurs for Serbia deeply concerned by financial investigations against prominent NGOs and media Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of July 30, 2020.
  9. ↑ Rapporteur welcomes inter-Libyan dialogue in Bouznika Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of October 6, 2020.
  10. ↑ Members of the Council European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
  11. ↑ Ceccarelli, Filippo (27 September 2005). "E Fassino rivela Sono credente" [And Fassino reveals: I'm a believer]. la Repubblica - Archivio.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.